Well, I'm officially back from my honeymoon and while I did miss blogging, I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish I was still on that beach. Although my books inevitably get damaged, I love a literal beach read. 

I only read two books during the week I was in Barbados because the first ended up being rather long and dense (but good!). The books I read are Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century by John B. Thompson and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty. Both are excellent and I highly recommend them. I'll be sharing more about reading in Barbados soon, so stay tuned. 

In the meantime, I got back from my honeymoon and learned my essay "The Last Summer" was published in Deep South Magazine! 

I've been reading Deep South for years, so I was super excited the story found a home there. I've gotten a lot of lovely feedback on it so far, so I hope you'll check it out! 

As an up-and-coming writer, it means the world to me when people support my work. And now that my life isn't wholly consumed with wedding planning, it seems like a good time to announce that I'm working on a full-length essay collection. It's half done now and my goal is to have the first full draft completed by the end of the year. What I've already got has been heavily edited, but once I've got the full draft it'll go through several more rounds of editing. 

The essay collection will be about my weirdo half Southern redneck and half Palestinian family and my life caught between these two worlds. There's an undercurrent of death––both the literal death of my biological father and my adventures being a cemetery tour guide. It's funny, it's dark, it's strange, and if I may say so, about everything you want from an essay collection. There's also nothing quite like it out there.

If I had to compare the essay collection to the works of two existing authors, I'd say it's like Scaachi Koul meets Caitlin Doughty. 

That being said, if you are an agent or if you know an agent, I'm your girl. I'm happy to send sample essays (or you can check out other pieces I've written here) that will be in the book and answer any questions. 

I'll also keep you posted on my publishing adventures since publishing is related to the mission of this book blog and is also my primary life goal. So if you enjoyed "The Last Summer," get excited because I can't wait to share the book of essays with you. More on that soon! 

xo

Mandy